New House panel to probe officials

NEWDELHI: The Delhi Assembly on Monday formed a new House committee to probe cases of misbehaviour and dereliction of duty by government officials.

The nine-member committee was constituted by Delhi Assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel minutes after the House resolved that bureaucrats led by chief secretary Anshu Prakash were defying the guidelines of official dealings between the administration and the legislators.

The ‘House Committee on violation of protocol and contemptuous behaviour by government officers with MLAS’ will examine complaints referred by the speaker. It is has been formed on the lines of a Lok Sabha committee which fixes accountability of central government employees in case of contemptuous behaviour with parliamentarians.

Throughout the budget session, which began on March 16, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators and the speaker have been critical of the Delhi government officials for not answering questions related to land, police, services and vigilance as the subjects are under the Lieutenant Governor’s jurisdiction. Officers, since over a month, have also been boycotting meetings with ministers and are maintaining only written communication in protest against the alleged assault on chief secretary Anshu Prakash.

The opposition criticised the resolution and staged a walkout, demanding that chief minister Arvind Kejriwal apologise to Anshu Prakash for the alleged assault which took place at the CM’S residence.

Leader of the opposition Vijender Gupta said by apologising in his defamation cases, the chief minister has reduced his credibility to “zero”. “When the CM has apologised to all those, complaining against who he won a huge majority of 67 seats, why is Kejriwal feeling small in apologising to the chief secretary? If the CM apologises to CS, his reputation will not go down” Gupta said.

BJP MLA from Rajouri Garden Manjinder Singh Sirsa supported Gupta’s demand.

The speaker attacked the BJP by pointing out a letter from the L-G which asked him not to take questions from MLAS on ‘reserved subjects’. “The L-G office has turned into a den of politics of BJP,” said Goel said.

Citing a DOPT memorandum, AAP spokesperson and Greater Kailash MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj said if officers do not meet legislators, they can write to the speaker and the committee will look into the matter.